WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?, a series by Diane Tippell (Silver Burdett: Each is $5.75, 20 pp. and for ages 7-11).

Some homes where children live are immaculate. Others, well, one uncharted step in the middle of the night can undo a sleepy parent, especially if there happen to be LEGOs in the house. In the dark, those “tiny plastic pellets” are squeamier underfoot than Jell-O, or the cat, but by day, they are heaven-sent toys. Now kids can read LEGO Brick, an easy tour showing exactly how the blocks are molded, dyed and packed and how they originate from oil in the seabed. The illustrations are as bright and inviting as the LEGOs themselves, and large type will make young readers more comfortable. This shiny little book (7 by 7) is one of four in a series by a promising new artist who tries to answer some of those confounded questions youngsters manage to ask.

Sweater begins with sheep getting a bath then shows the wool factory where it’s “very hot and smelly. . . .” In the end, Grandmother knits a pullover while her cat unravels a skein. Water follows rain and melting snows on the journey to reservoirs and filter beds, and then into our homes. Sidecuts show how pipes and sewers network underground, which will please kids no end, because now they can see what happens when they flush the toilet. Banana shows this fruit’s long journey from a South American plantation to our kitchens, then suggests fancy ways to eat the thing.

In all these books, Tippell has been careful to draw women in a variety of creative jobs, and there is such a pleasant assortment of men washing dishes, marketing and tending babies; mothers will cheer. The last page of “LEGO” shows the father cleaning up a birthday mess while Mom sits on the floor building blocks with her children. And she doesn’t even look guilty! Let’s hope to see more, soon, from Tippell.